[HSF] "Patients don't want cardiopulmonary bypass" - the great con

[gabi ford]

 On Dec 18, 2007 9:12 PM, Ani Anyanwu  wrote:
> The notion that patients will not have a procedure because it is "hard to
> convince them to go on pump" is one of the most promoted fallacies in our
> profession today. This is largely an invention of cardiologists and
> proponents of off-pump surgery. This is similar to the myth that patients
> will not agree to post-op angiography whereas in Japan the majority get it
> as we have heard. How many patients actually have a clue what CPB is? 

They have no idea.  Patients come to the hospital with chest pain...they get an angiogram...and might be visited by the CV surgeon while recovering from the angio or later that day.  They get told, "You need heart surgery", and they generally just say "Oh".  
They might ask more after the doctor is gone....after the shock has worn off.
But I have never had a patient ask anything about on or off pump.  Never.

Gabi, RN